The St. Johns herald., 1887-04-07
7 soUAIoR IN THE METROPOLIS.
Pictures of Life In Shanty Town, New
 yorE.-A Big-Headed Prodigy.

ment of bushwhackerS GS certainly is Shanty Town.
 The inhabitants of that unattractive village are by no means poverty-stricken, however. They all have ready money and many of them more than sufllcl- ency of it, though their dwellings and the furnishings thereof are primitive in the extreme. Family pride is as rampant there as in the houses that line the broader and straighter avenues of the city.
 In one of the huts, in the lower part of Shanty Town, there is a physical mOn- sUrosIJy that would make the heart of a dime museum man leap with joy and excite the liveliest interest of the scien- tist. Playing with the children and dogs of that delectable locality is child six years of age, whose head when he was ten months old measured twenty-two and hall inches in circumference.
 In company with Q physician, whose past services had placed him on Q familiar footing with the family, Fri bune reporter went the other day to view the young man thus afflicted with the big head.
 "Sure, Doctor, an I'm very bad" re- sponded the mistress of the shanty in reply to the usual inquiries. II have the malary orful and my nerves are all un- strung"
 Hrs. Murphy had large, clear. blue eyes, and her face showed the relics of youth ful beauty, but heavy diagonal scar across her upper lip had drawn it partly out of shape.
 "How Is Wnlie?" asked the doctor. l" want to measure his head again."
 Willie toddled up the walk at this point to answer for himself.
 Ha Tvac onrtaifllv n most r(y51o TiSn1ln specimen of humanity. His slender limbs shook under the weight of his enormous head. The neck and lower part of the head were unusually small, but above O plane passing through the eyes and upper part of the ears the skull iiared cut like the sides of well-filled balloon, running out to circumference of twenty-six and one-half inches. and up to Q height of five or six inches. The eyebrows were drawn up an inch and the deserted eyes were weak and expression less.
 The child staggered little and wob- bled along like an emigrant woman with mn overload of household goods or her head. A thin, narrow chest and pipe ftem arms seemed to hunger for the vi- tality that the ovcrgrown head had ab- sorbcd, while the stomach alone showed aldermanic tendencies. There was intel ligenea in the child and the ability to tnlk, but no promise of second Daniel Webster.
 A big bruise on the forehead showed Uherc the attraction of gravitation had Eotton the better of Willie's undcrpinlnG so that l" the globe which we inhabit and the lesser globo that served him for aa upper story had como together.
 "Sure, and he's afther bumpin hlS head all the while" said S1rs. Murphy in explanation. "The b'ys run away from him, an he tries ter fol!cr. I'll have ter get him goat ter play wid. Wasn't that q nice ono we caught up Gt High Bridge last Sunday, Willie2 But tar brute of gateman wouldn't let us l.ring 1t down on the elevated. Let ter doctor measure your head, Willie, and Willie submitted with evident apprccia- ton of the honor.
 . "This Is what we call Q hydroeepha- lie hoad," said the doctor as he produced a tape measure and notebook. "The brain Is of ordinary size and the rest of the skull is filled with water. Such child generally dies in infancy and this is per haps the only case that ever occurred that was not fatal"
 Along the middle of the skull there was a ridge about four inches In width. It gave forth hollow sound as the doctor rapped it with his knuckles.
 ''That Is where the sutures joined" he continued in explanation. "In tho new born babe the skull is not solid but is in several parts joined by membranes. When the head began to swell under the pressure of the water on the brain it split and there were three or four inches here where there was no skull at all, only membrane. Now the bones have grown out and joined so that 1t is all hard as you can see. There Is no reason why the child shouldn't live now until he dies from other reasons"
 When released, Willie toddled or to play with the ''b'yS" who were either too lazy or two stout-hearted to run away from the monstrosity, and the visitors took leave of Mrs. Murphy with the kind blue eyes and the twisted smilo.
 The doctor called at another palace of old boards, frescoed with whitewash. to ask the lady of the house about hcr two sons who were In lunatic asylum. The bereaved mother went over all the family history and prospects for the visitors benefit; only stopping for frequent appli- cations of her apron to her eyes.
 The chronicle extended from her father, who was yeoman in Ireland, and w;i,s lover thousand men," down to the latest developments in the little affair between her daughter in Yonkcrs and ''ther young feller that was a maxim up to her. An sure he was nice, likely young chap, but not Cathlic, and she didn't know whether they wouldn't fight over religions if they were married"
 Shc wouldn't hear of the visitors going away without glass of wine or some thing. After a lively discussion Hs to whether the molasses jug or the tumbler should be used, the latter carried the day, and Nora, the youngest girl, was sent around to tho nearest groggery to have the tumbler filled with port wine.
 Half the contents of ''thc growler" wore poured out into cup and the callers drank to the health of the daughter in Yonkers and the future conversion of her young man who wasn't Cath'lic"
 "That woman Is as honest as the day is long," said the doctor, as the two scrambled down to civilization again. ]" She pays cash always and in advance. Many is tho time I've been rung up and found her at the door waving three dol lars et me when she knows that my charge Is only two dollars 0 visit. She paid her lawyer S60 in less than a week once. The ground rent for that shanty is '$130 year but she hasn't $5 worth of Furniture in 1t, as you see"
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 A xUo-5 For Kar-c1o-.